THE FIRST VOW OF SUCCESS

In life we come across inspired teachings that represent moments of brilliance that simply make us better. From The Greatest Salesman In The World by Og Mandino, we learn a great secret to success which represents one of those brilliant teachings.

“NEVER AGAIN WILL I PITY OR BELITTLE MYSELF”

I was born to succeed, not to fail

I was born to triumph, not to bow my head in defeat.

I was born to toast victories, not to whimper and whine.

What happened to me? When did my dreams all fade into a grey mediocrity where average people applaud each other as excellent?

No person is ever so much deceived by another, as by himself. The coward is convinced that he is only being cautious and the miser always thinks he is practicing frugality. Nothing is so easy as to deceive one’s self since what we wish is always easy to believe. No one, in my life has deceived me as much as I have.

Why do I always try to cover my small accomplishments under blankets of words that make light of my work or excuses for my lack of ability? Worst of all, I have come to believe my excuses so that I willingly sell my days for pennies while consoling myself with thoughts that things could always be worse.

No more!

It is time to study the reflection in my looking glass until I recognize that the most harmful enemy I have…is me. At last, in this magic moment with my first scroll, the veil of self-deceit is beginning to lift from my eyes.

Now I know that there are three classes of people in the world. THE FIRST LEARN FROM THEIR OWN EXPERIENCE – THESE ARE WISE. THE SECOND LEARN FROM THE EXPERIENCE OF OTHERS – THESE ARE HAPPY. THE THIRD LEARN NEITHER FROM THEIR OWN EXPERIENCE NOR THE EXPERIENCE OF OTHERS – THESE ARE FOOLS.

I am not a fool. Henceforth I will stand on my own feet and my terrible crutches of self-pity and self-contempt have been cast aside forever.

NEVER AGAIN WILL I PITY OR BELITTLE MYSELF.

How foolish I was when I stood in despair, by the side of the road, and envied the successful and the wealthy as they paraded by. Are they blessed with unique skills, rare intelligence, heroic courage, enduring ambition, and other outstanding qualities that I possess not? Have hey been allotted more hours, each day, in which to perform their mighty tasks? Do they have hearts full of compassion and sols overflowing with love that are different from mine? No! God plays no favorites. We were all fashioned from the same clay.

Now I also know that the sadness and setbacks of my life are not unique to me. Even the wisest and most successful of our world suffer chapters of heartbreak and failure but they, unlike me, have learned that there is no peace without trouble, no rest without strain, no laughter without sorrow, no victory without struggle and that is the price we all pay for living. There was a time when I paid the price willingly and easily but constant disappointments and defeats first eroded my confidence and then my courage even as drops of water will, in time, destroy the strongest granite. All that is now behind me. No longer am I one of the living dead, remaining always in the shadows of others and hiding behind my sorry apologies and alibis while the years waste away.

NEVER AGAIN WILL I PITY OR BELITTLE MYSELF.

Success, when it comes overnight, often departs with the dawn. I am prepared, now, for a lifetime of happiness because I have finally recognized a powerful secret hidden in the years that treated me so harshly. FAILURE IS, IN A SENSE, THE HIGHWAY TO SUCCESS, INASMUCH AS EVERY DISCOVERY WE MAKE OF WHAT IS FALSE LEADS US TO SEEK EARNESTLY AFTER WHAT IS TRUE AND EVERY FRESH EXPERIENCE POINTS OUT SOME FORM OF ERROR WHICH WE SHALL AFTERWARD CAREFULLY AVOID. THE PATH I WALKED, OFTEN DAMPENED BY MY OWN TEARS, HAS NOT BEEN A WASTED JOURNEY.

NEVER AGAIN WILL I PITY OR BELITTLE MYSELF.

Thank you God, for playing your game with me, today, and placing in my hands these precious scrolls. I was at the lowest ebb of my life but I should have known it is at that moment that the tide always turns.

No longer will I look mournfully to the past. It will never return. Instead, with these scrolls, I will shape the present because it is mine and I will go forth to meet the mysterious future without fear, without doubt, without despair.

I was formed in the image of God. There is nothing I cannot achieve if I try.